There are multiple ways to install PowerShell in Windows. Each install method is designed to support different scenarios and workflows. Choose the method that best suits your needs.

Note

The installation commands in this article are for the latest stable release of PowerShell. To install a different version of PowerShell, adjust the command to match the version you need. The following links direct you to the release page for each version in the PowerShell repository on GitHub.

Download links for every package are found in the Assets section of the Release page. The Assets section may be collapsed, so you may need to click to expand it.

Winget, the Windows Package Manager, is a command-line tool enables users to discover, install, upgrade, remove, and configure applications on Windows client computers. This tool is the client interface to the Windows Package Manager service. The winget command-line tool is bundled with Windows 11 and modern versions of Windows 10 by default as the App Installer.

Note

See the winget documentation for a list of system requirements and install instructions. Winget isn't available on Windows Server 2022 or earlier versions.

Windows Server 2025 Preview Build 26085 and later includes winget for Windows Server with Desktop Experience only. For more information, see Announcing Windows Server Preview Build 26085.

The following commands can be used to install PowerShell using the published winget packages:

Search for the latest version of PowerShell

Install PowerShell or PowerShell Preview using the id parameter

Note

On Windows systems using X86 or X64 processor, winget installs the MSI package. On systems using the Arm64 processor, winget installs the Microsoft Store (MSIX) package. For more information, see Installing from the Microsoft Store.

To install PowerShell on Windows, use the following links to download the install package from GitHub.

Once downloaded, double-click the installer file and follow the prompts.

The installer creates a shortcut in the Windows Start Menu.

Note

PowerShell 7.4 installs to a new directory and runs side-by-side with Windows PowerShell 5.1. PowerShell 7.4 is an in-place upgrade that removes previous versions of PowerShell 7. Preview versions of PowerShell can be installed side-by-side with other versions of PowerShell.

If you need to run PowerShell 7.4 side-by-side with other versions, use the ZIP install method to install the other version to a different folder.

PowerShell 7.2 and newer has support for Microsoft Update. When you enable this feature, you'll get the latest PowerShell 7 updates in your traditional Microsoft Update (MU) management flow, whether that's with Windows Update for Business, WSUS, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, or the interactive MU dialog in Settings.

The PowerShell MSI package includes following command-line options:

Note

Enabling updates may have been set in a previous installation or manual configuration. Using ENABLE_MU=0 doesn't remove the existing settings. Also, this setting can be overruled by Group Policy settings controlled by your administrator.

For more information, see the PowerShell Microsoft Update FAQ.

MSI packages can be installed from the command line allowing administrators to deploy packages without user interaction. The MSI package includes the following properties to control the installation options:

The following example shows how to silently install PowerShell with all the install options enabled.

For a full list of command-line options for Msiexec.exe, see Command line options.

PowerShell binary ZIP archives are provided to enable advanced deployment scenarios. Download one of the following ZIP archives from the current release page.

Depending on how you download the file you may need to unblock the file using the Unblock-File cmdlet. Unzip the contents to the location of your choice and run pwsh.exe from there. Unlike installing the MSI packages, installing the ZIP archive doesn't check for prerequisites. For remoting over WSMan to work properly, ensure that you've met the prerequisites.

Use this method to install the ARM-based version of PowerShell on computers like the Microsoft Surface Pro X. For best results, install PowerShell to the to $env:ProgramFiles\PowerShell\7 folder.

If you already have the .NET Core SDK installed, you can install PowerShell as a .NET Global tool.

The dotnet tool installer adds $HOME\.dotnet\tools to your $env:PATH environment variable. However, the currently running shell doesn't have the updated $env:PATH. You can start PowerShell from a new shell by typing pwsh.

PowerShell can be installed from the Microsoft Store. You can find the PowerShell release in the Microsoft Store site or in the Store application in Windows.

Benefits of the Microsoft Store package:

By default, Windows Store packages run in an application sandbox that virtualizes access to some filesystem and registry locations. Changes to virtualized file and registry locations don't persist outside of the application sandbox.

This sandbox blocks all changes to the application's root folder. Any system-level configuration settings stored in $PSHOME can't be modified. This includes the WSMAN configuration. This prevents remote sessions from connecting to Store-based installs of PowerShell. User-level configurations and SSH remoting are supported.

The following commands need write to $PSHOME. These commands aren't supported in a Microsoft Store instance of PowerShell.

For more information, see Understanding how packaged desktop apps run on Windows.

Beginning in PowerShell 7.2, the PowerShell package is now exempt from file and registry virtualization. Changes to virtualized file and registry locations now persist outside of the application sandbox. However, changes to the application's root folder are still blocked.

Important

You must be running on Windows build 1903 or higher for this exemption to work.

Preview releases of PowerShell 7 install to $env:ProgramFiles\PowerShell\7-preview so they can be run side-by-side with non-preview releases of PowerShell. PowerShell 7.4 is the next preview release.

For best results when upgrading, you should use the same install method you used when you first installed PowerShell. If you aren't sure how PowerShell was installed, you can check the value of the $PSHOME variable, which always points to the directory containing PowerShell that the current session is running.

If you installed via the MSI package, that information also appears in the Programs and Features Control Panel.

To determine whether PowerShell may be upgraded with Winget, run the following command:

If there is an available upgrade, the output indicates the latest available version.

Note

When upgrading, PowerShell won't upgrade from an LTS version to a non-LTS version. It only upgrades to the latest version of LTS, for example, from 7.2.3 to 7.2.21. To upgrade from an LTS release to a newer stable version or the next LTS, you need to install the new version with the MSI for that release.

When the installed version isn't an LTS version, PowerShell upgrades to the latest stable version.

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise comes with Windows PowerShell, which we can use to deploy PowerShell 7.